How The Typehouse started their logo design journey

Summary

We need a compelling new logo for a music typesetting and publishing company with a green ethos. (Please read the brief!)

Two runner-up prizes of $75 are now added. (The first prize remains at $220.)

Company name

The Art of Music - theartofmusic.com

What inspires you and how do you envision the design for your business?

There are plenty of people doing music typesetting, but the
results are often disappointing. "The Art of Music" has
produced thousands of pages of beautifully engraved music and text
for major publishers.

We're rebranding and want something completely different - fresh,
unique, memorable and, most importantly, will stand the test of
time...we want the logo to grow with our company into a strong
international brand, whilst being clean and simple.

The Logo will be used both for web and print purposes.

Important Note:

Upon contest completion and full
transfer of payment, the designer will be expected to sign a contract
transferring all ownership (copyright and title) of the final design
over to The Art of Music. The Logo will become the property of
The Art of Music, with the designer retaining the right to
display the artwork in their portfolio and advertising
materials. Please do not participate if you are not
prepared to comply with this standard-industry procedure.

Wants

We will give regular feedback and eliminate designs that are a
definite "no".

Preferences:
-
Logo should give ‘feeling’ of
– creativity, top-quality, credibility, professionalism
- The logo should be instantly
distinguishable with an original design feature/graphic element or
unique font.
- "The Art of Music"
should go straight across
- Please no templates. Original
artwork only.
- Transparent background
- Color is great, but keep in mind the logo should also
translate/work well in B&W
Formats:- Vector CMYK Format
(logo needs to enlarge w/o quality loss for large exhibition sized
posters for conferences). Adobe Illustrator
- Winning designer will be required to hand over the
completed vector file and some bmp/gif images in various sizes.

Don't want

-
Logo needs to work well in print -
so please no 3D effects or complicated colour gradients
- No busy/fussy designs
- No "stave" or “music” or “treble
clef” etc. designs … they're way too played out.
- (Added 15/7/08): No instruments either please.